BMC officials said the cave-in that left a 6-foot-wide,10-foot-long and 5-foot-deep hole in the road was caused by a weakened 12-inch water pipeline underground.

A depression in the road was noticed at around 9 am,after which excavation was carried out to discover the cause,said civic officials.

We started excavation to see if stormwater drains were the reason for the depression. We then saw a weakened water pipeline had developed a crack. We are fixing the portion of the pipeline, said Parag Masurkar,assistant municipal commissioner of D-ward.

He said the damaged water line would not affect supply in the area.

Water in this area is supplied after midnight and we would have completed repairs by then, said Masurkar.

Soil corrosion and continuous seepage from century-old stormwater drains and water lines running underground have caused numerous road cave-ins in south Mumbai. Additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta said,The network of underground utilities in the island city is over a century old. No amount of fresh road works can solve this problem.

As it is not an arterial road,we did not divert traffic. Internal road traffic has been affected and is moving very slowly, said Tardeo traffic police inspector S M Jadhav.

Monday,Newsline had reported that eight months after many such cave-ins in south Mumbai,BMC was still to find a solution.

There were three cave-ins on Pedder Road last year from July to October.

BMC is yet to make purchase of a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) planned in July 2012. To be procured at an estimated cost of Rs 25-50 lakh,the machine would aid identification of soil,rock structures and utilities up to 10 metres beneath the road. It would also help detect possible cave-ins,culvert collapses and could be used during construction of retaining walls and paverblocks.

After the tender for the machine received a poor response earlier this year,a new one has been floated.